Trailer
Review for Kingsman the Secret Service (2014)From IMDB: When their headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage, the Kingsman’s journey leads them to the discovery of an allied spy organization in the US. These two elite secret organizations must band together to defeat a common enemy.

The GoodIt ticks all the boxes from the first movie: the sleek filming style, amazing talent rounding up the cast and a larger than life plot to give you a satisfying 2 hour escape from the real world.
Taron Egerton is wonderful, as always, playing rough-boy gone posh Eggsy. There’s some beautiful moments where he shows some vulnerability; namely to do with his connections with friends and family.
Mark Strong’s Merlin is upgraded with extra screen time this outing. Strong is a wonderful addition to any film and Kingsman is no exception. Just wait for the final act and he will bring a tear to your eye with a song.
The American counterparts are a welcome detour in the film’s proceedings; Berry, Tatum and Bridges take on the Statesmen roles with charm and wit. They feel right at home with our smart dressed boys.
Hallie Berry, in particular, is a delight to see working alongside Strong. She plays his American counterpart; Ginger Ale. She longs for field work, only we never really get to see how successful she’d be.

The Bad
Colin Firth! Sigh, it’s so hard to put this as a negative, but when a film rewrites a narrative to bring back a character, it’s a little bit of a bitter pill. Now, I may be wrong as I’ve never read the comics however, I will never watch the first film and that scene in which Firth takes the bullet to the head with the same gravitas.
I have the same issue with Agent Coulson in Avengers Assemble; it means any following character deaths lose their power or believability. It stops me feeling for any character demise as I’m always holding my breath for their return.
That said, how Vaugn brings Firth back is quite ingenious and his character does add to the film’s dynamics and even the plot.
Alas, he also draws attention to my second negative of the film. Pedro Pascal’s hand is revealed too early as turncoat agent. I had my suspicions, but Firth’s character confirmed it. Nothing is done to deny this or make it out to be a red herring; so you’ll be shouting at the screen at Eggsy for doubting Galahad Snr.

The Ugly

It was too ‘filming by numbers’ for my liking. The same gags were used, they had the same fights in different locations and even the villain was the same character in a different body.
Okay, I’ll give Kingsman points for casting Julianne Moore as the peppy Poppy, hell bent on showing the world what she can do to the drug market. However, she was still exploiting a mass market item to her own benefit.
Her predictable demise feels a little anti-climactic which would have been fine had Agent Whiskey’s betrayal been the sucker punch reveal it deserved.

Sweet little Cherry
Elton John’s cameo was a delight. It trumps the Mark Hamill guest star from the previous film and he provides some of the film’s best laughs.

Final ThoughtsI’m so happy it was made and it’s certainly an enjoyable 2 hours, but it pales in comparison to its predecessor and I do hope that there isn’t a third waiting to be green lit.